It's a horrible trainwreck you just can't look away from. The worst of humanity and plain-old bad luck make for some memorable moments that get played out with striking realism by Lapham's art. He's a master at knowing when the mere suggestion of violence will strike harder than the actual image of it. Definitely not for the faint of heart, but definitely deserving of the hype.

The best crime series I've read

I began buying and reading Stray Bullets with the first comic book issue in 1995 and followed it over the next decade, but with its irregular schedule and a hiatus, I'm not sure I ever got the final issue of the first series. Thanks to this giant omnibus from the library, I am finally able to re-read the first 41 issues as one big ass and awesome graphic novel.My thoughts on the first 14 issues from a review I wrote in 1998:Though I'm sure Lapham must be sick of the comparison by now, the parall...

Pretty cool comic in a lot of ways. Maybe a bit too gangster orientated and generally preferred the stuff that was more focused on random one off characters. The stories focused on Virginia Applejack were probably my favourites. Only fault I have with the art work is that it's often hard to tell what's supposed to be going on during the fight scenes... as characters just become this weird karma sutra of twisting limbs, punching fists and kicking legs. There's a sort of realism to this though; an...

Stray Bullets is the definition of making it up as you go along. With a name like “Über Alles Edition” and 1200 pages, you’d think that you’ve got the whole thing. But a couple of chapters before the end, you realise that it’s not going to wrap, and you look it up: there was a nine year gap between chapters 40 and 41, and somewhere out there there are ... maybe 39 more chapters under two different names that don’t seem to have been collected yet.There are good moments in Stray Bullets, but Lapha...

For several years I've been slightly pissed off at David Lapham. In the late nineties, Stray Bullets - along with Sin City, Eightball, Black Hole and a handful of other titles - was largely responsible for introducing me to the world of 'alternative' comics, reigniting my childhood enthusiasm for the medium. It remains a masterpiece of hardboiled crime and sequential art in general, with some of the most unforgettable characters and shocking moments I've encountered in over fifteen years of vora...

Wow. I don’t even know where to start. Stray Bullets by David Lapham is a book that does absolutely everything right. It’s constructed with quality and care in a way a very very small list of books can compare to. So, what is it about? Stray Bullets is a crime comic, but it’s more than a crime comic. Each issue is more less a standalone issue, but each issue explores a character that will appear later (or prior) or it will advance the main narrative of Virginia Applegate. Speaking of Virginia, I...

The uber collection of the indy hit Stray Bullets, one of my old favorites. It collects the initial run of 40 issues with an additional issue, printed much later, to finish the cliffhanger that the original series ended on. This crime noir series is highly recommended and comes with a large cast of interesting characters, who all feel real. The story effortless mixes childhood innocence with the bloody reality of the criminal underworld. While the price may be daunting to some, there is 1200 pag...

Stray Bullets: Uber Alles Edition (the subtitle is German for “above all”) collects the first 41 issues of this amazing series. I’ve reviewed #1-29 as four separate volumes - Volume 1: Innocence of Nihilism,Volume 2: Somewhere Out West, Volume 3: Other People, and Volume 4: Dark Days - so this review is for #30-41 aka the fifth story arc, Hi-Jinks and Derring-Do. I want to get this out of the way at the top of the review because this is the only truly negative thing I will say about Stray Bullet...

Man, what a ride. It almost feels like this book had a Stockholm syndrome effect on me because it's pretty rough in some parts, some off putting characters and decisions, and the book itself is heavy and hard to read but I was completely in it by the end and just want to know what's going to happen to Ginny!

Holy fuck, this is one BIG ass book. We're talking over 1200+ pages. Saying that, this is one of the best comics ever created. This is a story which takes place through various years and all connecting throughout. Stories of murder, suicide, cheating, child abuse, and more. It keeps going and going with two main characters. Amy and Beth. The story spans 20+ years so with that we get different view points of both characters. Beth teen years to adult, and Amy's child years to teens. The way they e...

Stray Bullets: Uber Alles Edition collects issues 1-41 of Stray Bullets.I've read a few hundred crime books and a few thousand comics but somehow I've read less than 100 crime comics all told prior to this. I wasn't reading many comics when Stray Bullets was coming out but I remember how favorably people in the know looked upon it and I was already a fan of David Lapham through his Valiant and Defiant work. Anyway, I found this for $35 not very long ago and it was worth every damned penny.Told o...

Violence knows no age and has no filter in this book. The story so far spans over 1000 pages and kicks you in the nuts page after page. It never gets dull and surprises you in many beautiful ways. I'm looking forward to reading the next brick a few years from now.

The Innocence of Nihilism (1-7). This is an amazing first volume. I love the structure of the book, with its kaleidoscope focus on some many characters in some many timeframes. More than once I found myself flipping back and forth to make sure I understood the connections. The storytelling is also very strong, with most of the issues ending with rather shocking moments of the sort that a more traditional comic would be afraid to include, because they'd create too much change.With that all said,

I bought the first two Stray Bullets collections when they were reissued a few years ago but for some reason didn’t complete the run, so when I saw this "Über Alles Edition” collating all 41 issues of the original comic into one enormous book I snapped it up. At 55mm thick it’s a behemoth of a book, and any thicker and you’d have distinct trouble holding the thing open to read it, but it is manageable, well presented and so full of promise.Stray Bullets gives us a succession of interlocking, ove...

For many years (since the 90's as a matter of fact), "Stray Bullets" has been one of those titles I've always come across, but never really gave it a shot. As I have gotten older, and my feelings for the cape genre have changed, stories like "Stray Bullets" is breath of fresh air and sort of a time capsule into what the independent film scene felt like in the mid 90's with Miramax films like "True Romance", "Pulp Fiction", or the early 2000's classic "Crash" to name a few."Stray Bullets" is a ra...

This omnibus edition of the original Stray Bullets story arch is an impressive tour de force by David Lapham. It's frankly amazing he was able to pull this off. Perhaps my favorite part of the series is that the beginning starts so well. Immediately, I didn't feel like I was going to have to stick with an admittedly long series until it got good, which is often the case with series like this. The first several stories are good stand-alone issues that almost feel disconnected but are nevertheless...

An extremely large collection of slightly connected stories that range from mundane weirdness to outright insanity. It's at times funny, disturbing, and constantly surprising. Lots of hoodrat shit to appreciate in this one. Most characters are living on the peripheral of society and the law, and most of them enjoy living there. The art feels natural to the types of stories being told -- the high contrast black and white that brings to mind the art of punk posters and DIY zines.

Holy shit. I read Jimmy Corrigan right before I read this and I am THOROUGHLY devastated/depressed. Gonna have to read something light next, like the Frank Miller DAREDEVIL run staring me down from my nightstand. That'll be nice and chipper...

(Zero spoiler review) More in depth individual volume reviews also available on my page. The only problem with this book is its not a hardcover omnibus. I knew this was meant to be a good one, as it does get a fair bit of praise, when you go looking for it. I feel as though the Brubaker/Philips duo gets the bulk of the praise within the noir genre (and with good reason), though Stray Bullets doesn't seem to garner quite a much acclaim. Having absorbed this series like oxygen in an airlock, I can...